


A Phone Call Away

by JosieRuby1



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-05-20
Packaged: 2018-03-31 11:02:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3975673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JosieRuby1/pseuds/JosieRuby1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wanda Maximoff struggles to cope with the loss of her brother. Having left the avengers to grief, she finds herself needed the help of the one Pietro saved</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Phone Call Away

**Author's Note:**

> I don't think I'm ever going to get over Pietro's death, and I'm never going to have had enough of Clint, Wanda and Pietro fic-writing

Running had seemed like the best idea at the time. Wanda couldn't cope with the training, couldn't cope with starting this whole new life without her brother. She had every intention of coming back, and she had told them so in the note she had left - She had been too cowardly to tell anyone to their face for fear that they would would try and talk her out of it. She was back in Russia, not home. No the city had been destroyed, but she was as close as she could get. She wanted to go back there, walk the streets, feel Pietro there, remember all that had happened. The truth, of course, was that she wanted much more than that. She didn't want to go to the city and remember her brother, she wanted to see her brother. She wanted him to be here with her. She wanted him to be training as an Avenger alongside her.

The days dragged on. Wanda wasn't sure this was helping but she liked being alone. Alone no one expected anything of her, alone it didn't matter if she cried for hours on end or didn't have the energy to even move. She was tired, so tired, but sleep was out of the question. Whenever she slipped she saw him, she saw him running off, she saw herself telling him to go. She saw his body lying covered in holes and blood. She couldn't be these images out of her mind.

In the week or so since she had arrived back here she was sure she had only got about 5 hours asleep. If that. When she managed to doze her dreams were full of the same. Images of him no longer there or worse, images of him with her and then waking to remember him gone. She couldn't bare it. She didn't want to close her eyes, she didn't want to think or feel anymore. Everything hurt. He had been the one constant in a fucked up and ever changing life. He was her brother, her twin. They were never supposed to be separated. 

The nights drew on, the darkness filled the room. Wanda could barely make out the shapes of the furniture and certainly wasn't aware of anything happening. The only light came from the digital clock at her side, announcing it was 2:59... 3:00am.

"Wanda?"

The voice snatched her from her reverie, confusing her for a long moment. How was that voice here. Realisation came when she felt her phone against her ear, her shoulder propping it up. She didn't remember making the call but now that she had she didn't regret it.

"Wanda, are you there?" Clint's voice came again.

Wanda nodded and briefly remembered that he couldn't see her, "Y-yeah..." She said, softly. 

It was only as she spoke then that she hadn't really spoken to anyone in days. She had stayed in her room most of the time and when she had gone out she had just drifted through the town, weaving in and out of the people but taken no notice of them. Someone in the back of her mind she knew she must've been projecting her feelings without consciously being aware of it because people's expressions would drop or there would move away quickly. 

"Everyone's been so worried about you," Clint said softly. 

"...Sorry." Her voice was so quiet, but she couldn't seem to make it louder. She felt like a ghost. 

"You don't need to apologise, kid," Clint told her. "SHIELD know where you are, but it was agreed that you needed some space. Everyone trusts you to come back when you're ready."

"Thanks."

"How are you doing, Wanda?" 

"I'm..." The automatic words of  _i'm okay_ died before they even made it out. It was a lie too big. "I... died two weeks ago with Pietro."

"Wanda, are you sure that being alone is good for you right now?"

"I'm not an avenger, Clint," Wanda told him. "I can't come back. I- I just.. I want to-"

"You don't have to come back to SHIELD. You can come here. You can stay with me for a bit. Away from the world of the Avengers but amongst people who care."

"I can't do that," Wanda said. "That's your life. My life was here... A dead brother, a destroyed city..."

"Wanda, you still have a life. I know it doesn't seem like it and no one is expecting you to forget Pietro or to move on quickly," Clint's voice was soft, understanding, in no way pushy. Wanda knew why she had called him out of all the options. Because he was the one who would tell you how it is but be kind about it. "But you are always welcome with me and my family. You are going to be able to live again, in time, I promise you."

"How, Clint?" Wanda asked, her voice cracking as the tears broke through. "How do I live without him? He was my life. He was always there. Always."

"By living for him," Clint told her. "By living in his memory. Eventually, when you're ready, you fight with us, you destroy those who would destroy humanity to avenge him."

"I feel like I'll never be ready..." Wanda said softly. "Like I'll always be missing him, wanting him back."

"You will," Clint said.

Wanda let out a teary wimper at that.

"You will never stop missing him, loving him" Clint continued, "The bond the two of you had is one that most people can only dream of, he was a part of you, yeah?"

Wanda moved to curl up on the bed, putting the phone on the mattress beside her on speaker. Perhaps she could pretend Clint was in the room, rather than thousands of miles ago and seven hours behind.

"Yeah," She said weakly.

"And a part of you died with him," Clint continued. "And that's a part of you you'll never be able to get back. That's gonna hurt. Throughout your lifetime you're going to want him there. But I promise you Wanda, it gets easier. The bigger part of you is still alive and fighting on."

"Doesn't feel like I'm fighting." Wanda murmured.

"But you are," Clint said. "You are still holding on and that's great. Maybe you're not moving on yet but you're still here, you're doing what you can and that is all you can do right now. But it will fade... The pain will start to face and one day you'll wake up and you'll realise you can think about Pietro again with a smile."

Wanda was quiet for a moment, before whispering. "No one's said his name around me since before he died."

"I'm not going to treat you like you're made of glass, Wanda, I've seen that you're not," Clint told her. "And I don't think you'd want his name to die with him as well."

"I don't want any part of him to die," Wanda barely managed to choke out the words through the tears.

"I know, kid," Clint murmured. "So we'll keep using his name, we'll keep talking about him. And you, you need to live for him."

"Thank you, Clint," Wanda said softly, and yawned

"Try and sleep," Clint suggested.

"Me and sleep aren't getting on well at the moment," she told him.

"Try, I'll stay on the phone for a bit, you speak if you need anything." Clint told her.

"Okay, thank you..." Wanda murured, closing her eyes. She knew she was tired, and she was grateful when Clint started humming through the phone. The humming partly cut through the thoughts and allowed her to relax enough to sleep off.

She woke after five hours to a text, "I'm just a phone call away -CB"


End file.
